ASSESSMENT OF THE ECOLOGICAL CONDITION OF AGRICULTURAL SOILS IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The article presents the results of assessing the ecological condition of agricultural soils in Ukraine. The purpose of the research is to study the assessment of the ecological condition of agricultural soils in Ukraine. The research results show that contamination with cesium-137 of above 37 kBq/m2 on the agricultural land in Ukraine covers 461.7 thousand hectares, among which arable lands occupy 345.9 thousand hectares. 8.8 million hectares of agricultural land have been examined, and it has been found that 12 regions remain contaminated with various toxicants. It has been established that the largest areas of agricultural land contaminated with cesium-137 can be found in Zhytomyr region – 156 thousand hectares, Cherkasy region – 76, Rivne region – 52, Chernihiv region – 52, Vinnytsia region – 50 and Kyiv region – 34 thousand hectares. In recent years, in Cherkasy and Vinnitsa regions, there have not been identified agricultural products contaminated at the levels that exceed permissible ones. In Rivne region, the most difficult situation is with the contamination of agricultural products with cesium-137, where more than 18.6 thousand hectares of peatlands are contaminated. Contamination of agricultural lands with strontium in Ukraine is observed on a much larger scale than those with cesium. Strontium-90 in the range of 0.74-5.55 kBq/m2 contaminated 4.6 million hectares, which occupies 52% of the area under research. Research results indicate that the total area of contaminated land in Ukraine is about 9 million hectares, among them 4.2 million hectares are contaminated with radiation, 2.0 million hectares are contaminated with heavy metals, 2.8 million hectares are contaminated with toxicants of organic and inorganic origin. It has been established that contamination with heavy metals from agro-industrial sources to the levels approaching the maximum permissible level (MPL) is possible only on the lands where chemicals have been used for a long time without proper control. It has also been found that application of mineral fertilizers and traditional organic fertilizers in medium doses can raise the level of heavy metals in soils with the current values of MPC only for hundreds of years.